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Friday, May 3, 2013

Celebrating - A Task Finished

SMALL CELEBRATIONS

It's good to be able to open your eyes to the things around you that are worth celebrating, even if they are as small (relatively speaking) as a smile from a stranger that you know would easily become a friend.Stepping into a brisk May breeze, watching the flowers push their way through the soil, even though you know jolly well you're a terrible gardener.

Today, though, I'm celebrating completing a task I'd been thinking of for a long time.

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I'm writing a series of historical fiction set in Egypt and centered around the city of Memphis.It is known as 'The Memphis Cycle', and that city, and the families that lived and ruled there, provide the thread that ties the stories together.Three are published, one iscoming out the end of May, another should be coming out in November, and four others are in varying stages of development.

Here are covers 1 & 2. #2 is scheduled to be published May 31:

The covers fell into a sort of theme - statuary or
sculptures against a background that referred to something in the story.
As the series developed, I began to want them to be visible as a related group.
So I redesigned them, keeping the original 'art' work, but putting that
into a framework specific to the stories.. These are covers #3 and 4. #3 is projected to be published November.

The line under the image is a hieroglyphic text with the
name and attributes of the king ruling at the time of the story. It seems
to be working out. Here are covers 5 and 6. #5 is in the works, but it is an involved story and will need another year (maybe two) to complete properly. #7 is out.

What really tickles me is that my entire family is artistic
and I guess maybe I can pretend to be. (Pretend is the word, too.) For example,
while I work with photographic images for my covers, the figure crouching in
the corner of Lord of the Two Lands is my own work and is a silhouette drawing.
But I'm celebrating, for certain. It's something I've wanted to do in a long
time, and it's coming on the heels of a new release and a reissue.

So join me in a cup of cyber tea, a glass of cyber wine, a
stoup of cyber ale, or maybe some cyber lemonade. I'm celebrating!